ROSS'S RETURN
Dual International joins TB roster
When Ross Taylor opted to come out of retirement to play for Samoa in their bid to reach the 2026 T20 World Cup finals, he became certainly the sixth – and, arguably, the eighth – Notts player to represent two different countries in competitive cricket.
Taylor, whose mother was born in Samoa, played in the Asia–East Asia-Pacific regional qualifying event in Oman in October 2025.
He first ended a 16-year international career in 2022, having played 450 times for New Zealand across all formats, including 112 Tests. A former New Zealand captain, he played eight First-Class and eight List-A games for Notts in 2018.
For Nottinghamshire, his top score was 146, made against Essex; in all First-Class cricket, he made more than 12,000 runs with a career best of 290 made in a Test versus Australia at Perth in 2015.
He was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to cricket and Pacific communities.
Ross Taylor was tempted out of retirement at the age of 41 to play for the land of his mother’s family.
"It's official – I'm proud to announce that I'll be pulling on the blue and representing Samoa in cricket," Taylor wrote on Instagram.
In the qualifying event, he was in the Samoa team for the four matches they played, top scoring in the first (albeit with just 22) but was injured in the third match and ‘unable to bat’ in their final game. Samoa managed just one win from those matches and did not progress – there has been no word on whether Ross Taylor will continue to play for them.
In the curiously cyclical way of these things, Taylor came to Trent Bridge in 2018 on a short-term contract to help fill the gap left by the departure of another to represent two countries – Michael Lumb.
Although of Yorkshire cricketing stock – his father Richard played for the county, as did his uncle John ‘Tich’ Lumb – Michael was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and played his first representative cricket for that country.
In the late 1990s, he played one Under-19 Test, vs England at Newlands, and eight Under-19 T20Is.
At the start of the 21st century, he moved to England and played, naturally enough, for Yorkshire, gaining his county cap in 2003; he switched to Hampshire in 2007, staying for three seasons and was awarded his second county cap.
Lumb was selected in England's squad for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, playing in all seven matches, forming a rapid opening partnership with Craig Kieswetter. Lumb scored 137 runs @19.57 in the tournament which was won by England. Overall Lumb played in 27 international T20 games scoring 552 runs @21.23.
Michael Lumb signed for Notts in 2012, receiving his county cap – his third – in his first season. As a white-ball opener Lumb was part of the team that won two Lord’s Trophies – versus Glamorgan (Yorkshire Bank Cup in 2013) and Surrey (Royal London Cup in 2017). In 2016, Lumb hit three tons in the Royal London competition including 184 versus Northants at Trent Bridge, adding a Notts List A best of 342 for the opening wicket with Riki Wessels.
Nine of his 21 First-Class tons were scored for Notts, including a career best 221no versus Derbyshire at Trent Bridge in 2013.
Michael Lumb is one of three Notts players to have represented South Africa and one other country – the others being Matt Montgomery and, unlikely though it may seem, Clive Rice.
Like Lumb, Matthew Montgomery was born in Johannesburg and played for South Africa at Under-19, appearing in two Tests (against India) and two T20Is (vs Afghanistan).
Matt impressed the Trent Bridge coaches whilst on trial with Notts Second XI, scoring 147 against Warwickshire in an innings victory and signed on in 2022.
He made history in July 2023 when he became the first player from Trent Bridge to represent Germany in any format of the game, qualifying through his mother. He played in an ICC Men's World Cup European qualifier against Italy in Edinburgh, finishing on the losing side.
In August 2025, he elected to depart Trent Bridge and sign with Derbyshire from the beginning of the 2026 campaign.
In all, he had scored just shy of 2,600 all-format runs for Nottinghamshire, with a County Championship top score of 178, alongside claiming 30 wickets with his off spin. In his penultimate innings for Notts, he scored exactly 100 in a win against Lincolnshire in July 2025.
Montgomery's other claim to fame, or notoriety, is that when he made his First-Class debut for Notts, he took the squad number 666!
Clive Rice almost missed out on the chance to represent his home nation and played just three ODIs against India as South Africa was re-admitted to international cricket in 1991. Rice captained the team in each of those matches, including their first international win on return – an eight-wicket victory in New Delhi.
Three years earlier, in the two seasons after he had ended his career with Nottinghamshire, Rice played for Scotland as their overseas professional in the Benson & Hedges and NatWest Trophy competitions.
Clive skippered the side in nine games across the tournaments in 1988 and 89, a contribution that earned him an obituary in The Scotsman when he died in 2005.
For Nottinghamshire and Trent Bridge, Rice will always be the man that delivered two County Championship titles and the ‘Double’ in 1987 of the title plus the NatWest Trophy.
When he retired at the close of the 1987 season, his First-Class batting average for Notts was 44.29, from 17,053 runs and a top score of 246; he also took 268 catches.
He took 476 First-Class wickets at 23.58; in the Sunday League he had the outstanding statistics of 6,265 runs at 42.33 as well as 184 wickets at 22.90.
Another Notts player to make their representative debut for an age group team in another country was Jason Gallian.
Sydney-born, he played age group and club cricket in New South Wales, eventually joining the Australian Cricket Academy. Gallian was selected for his Under-19 debut when Australian Young Cricketers took on England Young Cricketers at Sydney in 1990. He captained the team and made 158no in the first innings. Jason played five Under-19 Tests in all, and two Under-19 ODIs (both against England).
He came to England later that year and played for Lancashire until moving from Old Trafford to Trent Bridge in 1998 where he took over the captaincy in his first season.
Jason Gallian played three Tests for England. Two were home Tests against the West Indies in 1995 – at The Oval and Edgbaston; the third was the fourth Test away to South Africa at Port Elizabeth. He could not replicate his county form and made a top score of just 28 in those matches.
He joined Essex in 2008 for his final two seasons of domestic competition.
Dirk Nannes completes the first half dozen of our names, playing in two successive T20 World Cup events, in 2009 and 2010, but for different nations.
Holding Dutch citizenship through his parents, he played two Twenty20 Internationals for the Netherlands at the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 tournament – including the opening match of the tournament when Netherlands shocked the hosts, England, winning off the very last ball.
Later that year, Nannes made his One Day International and T20I debuts for Australia. He played 15 ODIs for the Aussies, taking 27 wickets at 14.92 – his best figures, 4-18, coming against Bangladesh at Bridgetown in the 2010 tournament.
Also in 2010, he signed at Trent Bridge for the T20 Blast and appeared in 16 twenty20 matches for Notts Outlaws, taking 17 wickets at 27.
Dirk Nannes was a freestyle skier before beginning his cricket career and competed in mogul events at two FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cups.
Those six players all operated in the past fifty years or so when international cricket, and international travel, make such dual representations more feasible.
Yet there are two more candidates, from almost a century-and-a-half earlier.
Jemmy Grundy played almost 300 First-Class games in his long career, many of those for teams that bore the name ‘England’, though these were well before the first Test match and were most often commercial ventures rather than official internationals.
Grundy was in the squad led by George Parr that made the first overseas tour, to the USA and Canada, in 1859/60; this side played their matches as George Parr’s XI rather than as England but it is now accepted as an international tour.
On their return to the UK, they played a one-off match as ‘England Eleven to North America’ v ‘Another England Eleven’, at Old Trafford.
Jemmy Grundy makes the dual international list as he actually appeared for Ireland v MCC in Ireland’s first match in England at Lord’s in 1862. Grundy was on the MCC staff as a ground bowler at that time so presumably was ‘given’ to the visitors.
George Lane played fifteen First-Class games, all but three of those in America, including two for ‘United States of America’, and five for the ‘Players of the United States of America’. His cricketing career, as player, umpire and later sports retailer was almost all conducted in the USA.
His three English-based First-Class matches came for Notts during 1881, when most of the county’s professionals were staging a prolonged strike.
He – just about – makes our dual international list as the first game in which he appears in the archives is an MCC XI v XXIII Colts of England at Lord’s in 1877. Lane can at least make one link to cricket’s Golden Age – in this first game, he was caught and bowled by none other than WG Grace!
From Jemmy Grundy to Ross Taylor is a long stretch but shows that Victorian cricket could be just as international as the 21st Century version.
November 2025